International Journal of Applied Research 2015; 1(13): 480-487 ISSN Print: 2394-7500 ISSN Online: 2394-5869 Impact Factor: 5.2 Haryana assembly election 2014: Saffron tsunami IJAR 2015; 1(13): 480-487 www.allresearchjournal.com sweeps the state Received: 01-10-2015 Accepted: 02-11-2015 Pratap Singh, Ashok Kumar Pratap Singh Research Scholar, Dept. of Abstract Geography, M.D. University, Rohtak, Haryana, In a historic shift in power in Haryana, the Bharatiya Janata Party, for the first time has emerged as the India. largest single party with absolute majority, paving the way for the formation of a stable and “Centre- supported” government. The BJP, which only had four MLAs in 2009 assembly election in Haryana, Ashok Kumar easily crossed the halfway mark of 45 in the 90-member Assembly by winning 47 seats. The incumbent Assistant Professor (extension), Congress government led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda failed miserably despite ruling the state for 10 at S.K. Govt. College Kanwali, years. It could manage a distant third with only 15 seats. The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), the main Rewari, Haryana, India. opposition political party in Haryana, managed to back only 19 seats, a significant drop from the 31 seats it had won back in 2009, establishing itself as a weak runner up for the second consecutive time. The HJC (Haryana Jan hit Congress-BL) and BSP have been reduced to fringe players in the state politics. The results indicate that the era of piggy back riding its way to power are over for the BJP. The BJP will no longer play second fiddle to the regional parties in the future. Keywords: Haryana, Assembly Election, Saffron tsunami Introduction The rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party is the political story of the year. The recent state election in Haryana has just confirmed it. The BJP has been able to repeat its LokSabha performance of May2014, even consolidating some of its positions in a context of intense competition between solidly entrenched national and regional parties. The BJP's rise in Haryana is particularly spectacular. From the position of distant fourth in 2009, with four seats for 9.04 percent of vote share, the BJP succeeded in securing the majority of seats (52 percent) with its highest-ever tally of votes (33.2 percent). Table 1: Performance of Political Parties Seat Won Seat Won Vote share Vote share in Differe Party Difference in 2009 in 2014 in 2009 2014 nce BJP 4 47 + 43 9 33.2 + 24.2 INC 41 15 -26 35.1 20.6 -14.5 INLD 30 19 -11 25.8 24.1 -1.7 HJC 6 2 -4 7.4 3.6 -3.8 INDEP 7 5 -2 15 12.9 -2.1 OTHERS 2 2 0 7.7 5.6 -2.1 Source: Election Office, New Delhi. Correspondence The BJP won 47 seats out of total 90 seats. The result has created history, as it will be for the Pratap Singh first time that the BJP will form the government on its own in the state. The incumbent Research Scholar, Dept. of Geography, M.D. University, Congress lost heavily, both in terms of seats and votes – it saw a negative vote swing of more Rohtak, Haryana, than 10 percentage points and its tally of seats fell by 25. The party dropped to the third India. position, leaving the opposition space to the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) (Table.1). ~ 480 ~ International Journal of Applied Research BJP in neighbouring Punjab), other regional parties and independents. Voter turnout for the Assembly election set a new state record with 76.54 percent. A total of 1,351 candidates, of which 116 were women, contested for the 90 seats (an average of 15 candidates per seat). This was the highest number of total and women candidates in Haryana assembly elections since its formation in 1966. Though, this inflation of the number of candidates did not impact very much on the outcome as most of them failed to get any votes. Further, out of total 1351 candidates contested, 83 percent forfeited their deposit, which mean that they gathered each less than one-sixth of the total votes polled in their Source: Election Office, New Delhi. constituency. Fig 1: Vote share of political parties in 2014 assembly election. Data Base and Methodology Despite only a marginal drop in vote share of 1.7 percentage Data required for the purpose of understanding the whole points, the INLD’s position in the state’s politics is shaky. The range of basic facts, opinions and attitudes relevant to our INLD won 19 seats and secured the second place. Other study have been collected from various sources and through parties such as Kuldeep Bishnoi’s Haryana Jan hit Congress diverse methods. More emphasis has been placed on published (HJC) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have been reduced materials and written documents while discussion with to marginal players with a vote share of less than five percent. political leaders and people belonging to different walk of life have been conducted in a limited scale in order to present the course of events in its proper perspective. The secondary data have been collected from Election Office India, New Delhi, Election office Haryana, Reports of TV channels, Newspaper articles reports, and NGO reports, Census of India 2001 and 2011. Mapping and graphical presentation works have been made with the help of GIS techniques and Ms-Excel. Source: Election Office, New Delhi. Fig 2: No. of seats won by main political parties in 2009 & 2014 assembly election. The HJC-Haryana Jan Chetna Party (HJCP) alliance secured 4.2percent of the votes and managed to win only two seats – Adampur and Hansi – which were contested by Bishnoi and his wife Renuka Bishnoi respectively. The independent candidates tally also dropped in this election and only five independent candidates found their place in state legislative assembly (Fig.1). Objective . The present study has following objectives . To analyze the BJP’s social Engineering of wooing the voters. To analyze the reasons behind Congress and INLD failure. To find out the factors that helped BJP crossing the magic 45+ Study Area The 2014 Haryana Assembly election has been taken as the Map 1: Study Area study unit. The election was held on 15 October 2014 to elect 90 members of the Haryana Legislative Assembly. The results BJP Performance were announced on 19 October. Four major parties contested The BJP scripted a historic win in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha the election - the Indian National Congress (INC, incumbent), elections, notching up 47 seats to get a clear majority in the the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), the Bharatiya Janata 90-member House. The party that has never got more than 10 Party (BJP) and the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC). Others per cent of the votes and played second fiddle to regional that contested the elections included candidates from the partners in the past, swept aside competition from the Bahujan Samaj Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal to mop up 33.2 per Samajwadi Party, Shiromani Akali Dal (an alliance partner of cent of the votes (Table.1) ~ 481 ~ International Journal of Applied Research With an absolute majority in Haryana, the BJP does not need state for 10 years, has been confined to three districts only i.e. to be at the mercy of a fragile alliance with another political Rohtak, Sonipat, and Jhajjar (Map 4&5). party (Map.2). Bear in mind the fact that in the 2009 Legislative Elections in Haryana, the BJP had managed to garner only 4 seats- the present increase is a near 1100 percent (47 seats), a figure that is both staggering and mindboggling (Fig.2). From that result, it may seem that BJP has carried on its Lok Sabha run and continues to shine. The amplitude of victory margins reinforces the decisive character of the BJP’s victory. The BJP won 28 out of its 47 seats with a winning margin greater than 10 percent, a remarkable feat considering the four- and sometimes five-corner character of the competition. The BJP’s gain has been at the expense of both INLD and Congress, the latter bearing the brunt with 22 seats being lost to the BJP. The Congress could retain only 12 out Source: Election Office, New Delhi. of the 40 seats that it had won in 2009, with two and one seats gained from the INLD and the BJP. The INLD lost heavily to Fig 3: Vote Share of Main Political Parties in 2009 & 2014 the BJP (17 seats) but somewhat compensated with a five seat Assembly Election addition from the Congress (Table.1). What went wrong with Congress? Congress Performance The party banked on its local candidates' visibility and The Indian National Congress seems to have its legs knocked campaigns in their respective constituencies and kept its from under it. The Congress failed miserably despite ruling campaign centred on development. The Congress was hopeful the state for 10 years, and it’s decimation in Haryana looks of cashing in on the issue of development. Even the Congress complete both in terms of seat and vote share (Map.3). It has trumpeted its government's development initiatives ahead of even been overshadowed by the INLD, a reputedly spent force the polls, it doled out reservation for Jats, distributed sops to in the state. The INC garnered only 15 seats, a straight 25 seat employees, granted Sikhs a separate Gurdwara committee, (or a 167 percent) decline (Table.1). The Congress came announced an increase in several social security schemes and second in only 19 constituencies compared to 40 second a lot more but, still, ended up biting the dust in an election positions of the INLD.